Alex Reid on why wife Katie Price is enforcing a sex and alcohol ban

GLAMOUR model Jordan has handed her cage fighting hubby Reid a sex ban ahead of his title fight in Birmingham.

GLAMOUR model Jordan has handed her cage fighting hubby Reid a sex ban ahead of his title fight in Birmingham.

Celebrity Big Brother winner Alex Reid told the Sunday Mercury that his sexy wife, real name Katie Price, is fully behind him as he gears up for his big match – and has stopped him from working out between the sheets.

In Birmingham to square up to his opponent Tom ‘Kong’ Watson – who he meets on Saturday at the National Indoor Arena – Alex looked fighting fit and in great shape.

“I am always up for sex but she’s been saying ‘No, you’ve got to fight’. She’s right, I’m saving all my energy for the match,” he said.

“She’s also been great about joining me in not drinking alcohol. When we went to Michelle Heaton’s party in Dublin last weekend, we just drank water.

“I’m leading by example. I said to her ‘I’m not drinking and I’d rather you didn’t too’.

“I’ve been cutting out alcohol for weeks, along with things like pasta and bread.

“I have no problem with Katie drinking if she wants – she did at another party we went to the week before – but it’s nice she’s being so supportive.”

After Alex, 35, had limbered up in a Birmingham gym, he took his shirt off to reveal his impressive pecs.

He’s more muscle-bound than ever, but his face is noticeably thinner than when he won Celebrity Big Brother in January, just four days before he and Katie married in Las Vegas.

He’s determined to do well at the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA) event – having pulled out of the original match against Watson in May because of a knee injury.

When he turned up with Katie at Birmingham’s LG Arena to watch Watson take part in a replacement bout, he was upset at being booed by fans.

“I owe it to the fans I disappointed last time to get in there and be the best I can be,” he said.

“I’m a man of honour and I want to honour the commitment I made to this fight.

“Initially I felt I had something to prove, but now it’s about having fun.

“I love doing this – I wouldn’t be fighting if I didn’t enjoy it, because it’s very hard work and I’ve had to turn down a lot of lucrative offers to concentrate on this. My life has been put on hold.”

He reveals he was offered a place in the Ultimate Big Brother house – for a rumoured pay cheque of £150,000 – but talks broke down when he said he’d have to spend three hours each day training.

“I would have liked to have gone in but it wasn’t great timing,” he admits.

“Actually it might have been good for me to be in there, away from the celebrity craziness I face on a daily basis. I could have focused more on training, but the producers weren’t keen.

“I enjoyed watching the series. I missed the final though, as we were away. I recorded it but the missus has wiped it!

“I certainly don’t regret going in to the Big Brother house. It was a gamble and Katie wasn’t sure about me doing it, but it felt right.

“It was great to go in to boos and come out to cheers.

“I hope I can do the same thing when I’m back in Birmingham for the fight – turn the boos into cheers.”

Alex claims he has been ignoring the jibes coming from the Watson camp.

“There was a quote on his website where he said he wanted to bed Katie to show her what a real man is,” he said.

“That made me angry at first, but now I think ‘whatever’.

“I’m letting him do all the smack talk while I keep calm. I’m not just a fighter, I’m an entertainer.

“Obviously I need to bash the hell out of Tom, but we’re not fighting to the death. It’s also a performance, we’re showing off in front of thousands of people.”

Competitors in mixed martial arts fight in a cage using moves from boxing, kickboxing, judo, ju-jitsu and wrestling – and the brutal sport has attracted legions of macho fans.

Alex clearly enjoys performing on any stage – which is probably why he likes wearing women’s clothes and make-up as his alter ego ‘Roxanne’.

He took a year-long course at acting school, appeared in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks, and has had small parts in movies including Sliding Doors, Judge Dredd and Tomorrow Never Dies.

When Reid was in Big Brother, Hollywood star Stephen Baldwin told him he could be the next James Bond.

Now Alex says he’d like to pursue his acting career and has been offered three interesting jobs – including the lead in an Alan Ayckbourn play about celebrity culture called Drowning On Dry Land.

“The thought of being on a West End stage for eight weeks scares the pants off me, far more than getting in a cage,” the reality TV star said.

“I might do it, it would be a good challenge.

“I’d like to move into action films like Jason Statham. I’ve been offered two films recently, a comedy horror flick with Donald Sutherland and a World War Two drama.

“I’m having a go at presenting, too. I’ve signed a two-year deal with Virgin Media to make TV shows and I presented the UK’s Strongest Man with Geoff Capes, which is going out on Bravo.

“I still like fighting, though. Stephen Baldwin told me to give it up, but I won’t just yet.

“I need to give my body a chance to recover, though. At the moment I’m sore and I ache all over.”

Giving up isn’t really in Alex’s nature, which is why he’s called The Reidernator.

He explains how he got the nickname: “I was fighting in a ju-jitsu competition in 1999.

“I was getting beaten up but I kept on fighting and somehow ended up in the final.

“A guy said ‘he’s tough, he’s like the Terminator’. And my mate said ‘No, he’s the Reidernator’ and it stuck. It’s cheesy, but the fans seem to like it. I don’t mind a bit of cheese!”